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(From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.) 

CENTRAL REPUBLICAN CLUB. 



Letter of Wm. S. Peirce, on the Policy of the 
Kepubhcan Party — Col. Charles J. BiDDitE's 
Letter. 



PniLADELpniA, December 1, 18GL 

S/r: At the annual meeting of the Central Republican Club, held on 
Tuesday evening last, November 26th, you were elected one of the 
Corresponding Secretaries. Please indicate, by note or otherwise, your 
views in relation to the same. 

T have the honor to be, 

Very Respecirally, your obedient servant. 

A. M. WALKTNSHAW, Secretary. 
Wm. S. Peirce, Esq.. Philadelphia. 



Philadelphia, December 4th, 1861. 

Dmr Sir: I am in receipt of your favor of the 1st inst., informing me 
that I had been elected one of the Corresponding Secretaries of the Central 
Republican Club, of this City. I cheerfully accept the position. 

Recent political events have fully satisfied r^ie that in no way can the 
Republican party of Philadelphia serve the country with greater efEciency; 
be a strength to the Government and preserve its own honor and purity, than 
by a thorough reorganization as a party, and by supporting as candidates 
for office, those only who are exponents of its principles. 




The late letter of Charles J. Biddle, member of Congress from the Second 
Congressional District ; who was voted for by many Republicans upon 
protestation that "he would give no partizan pledges ;'' and upon their 
belief that he was a gallant and loyal officer, whose sense of duty had led 
him to the field, has demonstrated that no reliance can be placed upon 
the professions of political opponents, and that an officer may hold com- 
mand under the Government, without being over zealously attached to the 
cause in which he is engaged. 

Republicans should hereafter place themselves beyond the contingency, 
of being betrayed into the support of an unrevealed, but absolute enemy 
to their principles. It has been said that Mr. Riddle's letter was a 
political blunder. It has a greater fault than this. It has lost to him the 
admiration and regard which many of his fellow-citizens entertained for 
him as a patriotic soldier. 

Colonel Biddle f?hould know that it is the first duty of a soldier to re- 
spect the Government on whose behalf he has drawn his sword : an^ if he 
cannot accord to it the voice of praise, that it is at least entitled to demand 
of him the respect of silence. Condemnation of its motives, even of its 
errors, unless with the view to remedy them, and made through the proper 
channel, is unbecoming the soldier, and justly subjects him to censure, and 
discipline. Would Colonel Biddle have tolerated towards himself such 
breach of s:oldierly conduct in any of the officers of his regiment ? If so, 
then he was unfit to command, and his experience in two wars has done 
but little towards moulding him into the true soldier 

I think, therefore, the Government may congratulate itself upon his 
withdrawal from the army, and especially that he declined the post of 
Brigadier General which it so generously tendered him; le|st his accep- 
tance of it would have furnished to the country additional evidence that 
the Republican leaders, to use his own language, "were smitten by blind- 
ness" in the management of ihe war. 

But by far the most hearty congratulations for his withdrawal are due 
from the officers and soldiers of his regiment, for who could safely trust a 
commander who seems to have secretly despised the Government which he 
served ; who openly sneers at it when he is about to lay down his com- 
mand ; who refers to the war— the Government being in the hands of a 

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Republican Administration— as ' ' a Black Republican job;" who ha? no heart 
of charitj for the mistakes inevitable to so mighty a labour, precipitated 
upon the country at so short a notice, and who utters language that, 
coming from an officer in the service of the Government, to day cheers alike 

ll the hearts of the secret traitors of the North and the open traitors of the 

", South. 

4 But Mr. Biddle is not less erratic in his views and statements as a poli- 

^ tician, than he appears to be unsound in his sense of duty as a soldier. 

I 

5 He more than intimates that the Democratic party has been overthrown 

^ by "fantastic theories," "whimsies," "isms," questions of mere phrase- 
ology. Passing the lack of compliment which he pays his party, in ascrib- 
'i ingits overthrow to such shadowy causes, it exhibits Mr. Biddle as having 
-' utterly failed to comprehend and appreciate the great issues in which the 
country has been directly involved for seven years past : and towards which 
it has been drifting for nearly half a century. And in his failure to com- 
^ prehend these, he seems also to overlook the fact that Secession, which he 
"" says, "became an army with banners," when the Democratic party lost its 
^ sway, became such, simply because that party lost its sway, and was raade 
' up of the baffled leaders and followers of the Southern wing of that party : 
,^ allies of Mr. Biddle, in the Democratic ranks ; who, since 1812, as avowed 
;by Mr. Calhoun, have determined to destroy the GovernmcEt, when they 
could no longer control it; and with w^hora Mr. Biddle seems to be as 
fully in sympathy to day, as with the Government which they are seeking 
|to destroy. 

''] The bad taste of his letter is manifest also through every phase of it. — 
AYhen his name was presented for election he intimated that he would be a 
Candidate upon no partizan ground. Many Republican voters cast their 
'•* .^allots for him' for this reason. Others declined to vote for his opponent 
and stood aloof from the contest, because they believed Mr. Biddle to be 
a frank man and no partizan. To-day he writes : " I rejoice that it was 
with my name upon your banners that you overthrew the Republican 
party in this city." Can it be possible that he glories in the delusion by 
which he seems to have won the contest ? For the honor of an honored 
name it is hoped that I^lr. Biddle will withdraw this reproach from his 
character. 



And, as if to intensify his partizanship, words of obloquy, sarcasm and 
reproach, are hurled alike at the Administration and the Republicans in 
thick profusion. Choice words were not soug-ht for. Indeed, terms that 
are never used in a dignified correspondence, are thickly strewn through 
the letter. 

But these are matters affecting only taste and scholarship. The vital 
ofifence of Mr. Biddle's letter is, that he used his position to decry the 
Government, whose pay he has received; which has offered him honors 
beyond those which he has already received at its hand ; and in the life- 
struggle in which that Government is engaged, he suddenly, and at the 
hour of his departure from the field, when he may be beyond the reach of 
military tribunals, taunts it, and endeavors to hold it up to mockery and 
reproach. Like the Parthian he speeds his arrow as he flies. 

I trust that Republicans will hereafter only yield their support to the 
avowed exponents of their own political principles. 

You will please convey to the gentlemen of the Club my thanks for the 
iionor conferred on me. 

I am yours, very truly, 

AVILLIAM S. PEIRCE. 
To A. M. AValkinsoaw, Esq , Secretary. 



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